Jessie Kendall
Mental Health is a serious issue across the world, and especially in New Zealand.
“In the 2012/13 New Zealand Health Survey, one in six New Zealand adults (16%, or an estimated 582,000 adults) had been diagnosed with a common mental disorder at some time in their lives (including depression, bipolar disorder and/or anxiety disorder).
Women were around 1.6 times more likely to have been diagnosed with a common mental disorder (20%) than men (13%), and rates were higher in all age groups. The highest rates for women were from 35 – 44 years of age (23.8%) and for men were from 45 – 55 years of age (15.5%).”
Source: https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/assets/Uploads/MHF-Quick-facts-and-stats-FINAL.pdf
Jessie Kendall found her passion for supporting and developing others, whilst looking for a way to understand and manage her own personal mental health. Jessie’s life path was shaped from the very moment she was born. At her birth she did not breathe for 20 minutes. This resulted in a mild form of brain damage, leading to challenges with articulation and clumsiness. Sadly, some of her peers at school didn’t show any compassion or kindness, and she suffered from intense bullying at school, which of course, had a big impact on her self-worth, and lead to severe depression and anxiety in her late teenage years. Fortunately, learning was her distraction.
This thirst for knowledge has led her to achieve a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a Masters of Science in Industrial and Organisational (Applied) Psychology. Added to this is a NLP qualification too (NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Neuro refers to your neurology; Linguistic refers to language; programming refers to how that neural language functions. In other words, learning NLP is like learning the language of your own mind. Source: www.nlp.com/what-is-nlp/)
No doubt it’s this self-drive and love of learning that has seen Jessie setup her own business – Empower Me Now. When running your own business, there’s a lot to juggle, learn, balance and manage - and you need to be good at in many different things. She seems to be acing this though, check out her client reviews!
As a teen, Jessie didn’t have a clear definition of ‘success’, and as she grew, it become clear that her ambition was having a “healthy mind”. This is still important, but this definition of success has evolved further to …
“In the 2012/13 New Zealand Health Survey, one in six New Zealand adults (16%, or an estimated 582,000 adults) had been diagnosed with a common mental disorder at some time in their lives (including depression, bipolar disorder and/or anxiety disorder).
Women were around 1.6 times more likely to have been diagnosed with a common mental disorder (20%) than men (13%), and rates were higher in all age groups. The highest rates for women were from 35 – 44 years of age (23.8%) and for men were from 45 – 55 years of age (15.5%).”
Source: https://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/assets/Uploads/MHF-Quick-facts-and-stats-FINAL.pdf
Jessie Kendall found her passion for supporting and developing others, whilst looking for a way to understand and manage her own personal mental health. Jessie’s life path was shaped from the very moment she was born. At her birth she did not breathe for 20 minutes. This resulted in a mild form of brain damage, leading to challenges with articulation and clumsiness. Sadly, some of her peers at school didn’t show any compassion or kindness, and she suffered from intense bullying at school, which of course, had a big impact on her self-worth, and lead to severe depression and anxiety in her late teenage years. Fortunately, learning was her distraction.
This thirst for knowledge has led her to achieve a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a Masters of Science in Industrial and Organisational (Applied) Psychology. Added to this is a NLP qualification too (NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Neuro refers to your neurology; Linguistic refers to language; programming refers to how that neural language functions. In other words, learning NLP is like learning the language of your own mind. Source: www.nlp.com/what-is-nlp/)
No doubt it’s this self-drive and love of learning that has seen Jessie setup her own business – Empower Me Now. When running your own business, there’s a lot to juggle, learn, balance and manage - and you need to be good at in many different things. She seems to be acing this though, check out her client reviews!
As a teen, Jessie didn’t have a clear definition of ‘success’, and as she grew, it become clear that her ambition was having a “healthy mind”. This is still important, but this definition of success has evolved further to …
Being self-employed and seeing the positive impact her work has on others, is one of her greatest achievements. Its not always easy, but when you know you’ve found your passion (for Jessie, its helping others), you then are compelled to move forward and shape your career along those lines. Whatever you do, you have to make it work. The hardest part is often starting, so do it - just taking that leap.
Empower Me Now works with people one on one to develop solutions to challenges, achievement of goals, or improving mental wellbeing. Through her own experiences and her work, Jessie knows that working on yourself, and your personal growth can seem like a pretty hard thing to do. It can seem huge, overwhelming - like you are standing at the bottom of a mountain and have no clue how to get to the top. Whenever you feel overwhelmed in such a situation, Jessie recommends setting very defined goals that are achievable in small steps.
Empower Me Now works with people one on one to develop solutions to challenges, achievement of goals, or improving mental wellbeing. Through her own experiences and her work, Jessie knows that working on yourself, and your personal growth can seem like a pretty hard thing to do. It can seem huge, overwhelming - like you are standing at the bottom of a mountain and have no clue how to get to the top. Whenever you feel overwhelmed in such a situation, Jessie recommends setting very defined goals that are achievable in small steps.
“All that is holding us back is self-doubt.” Just imagine how much you can do by ignoring your self-doubt and taking away its power, and instead focusing on smaller, achievable steps. Literally like when climbing a mountain, focus on each and every step. Jessie herself uses this approach, she makes sure her goals are very specific and clearly defined, and plans to achieve them in small steps which are achievable – that’s the part she reiterates, as otherwise the mind perceives it to be too difficult.
Jessie says: “Nothing has any meaning but the meaning you give it”. Our internal chatter, the stories we tell ourselves, are so powerful. She reminds us that working on this, changing the internal you, changes reality. Changing your perception absolutely can change your reality.
This can even be used as a mantra. No matter how we let ourselves feel in certain situations, we can change how we perceive and thus approach a situation by taking control of our thoughts. Of course, it’s not easy and not always possible, but developing skills here are invaluable
Jessie says: “Nothing has any meaning but the meaning you give it”. Our internal chatter, the stories we tell ourselves, are so powerful. She reminds us that working on this, changing the internal you, changes reality. Changing your perception absolutely can change your reality.
This can even be used as a mantra. No matter how we let ourselves feel in certain situations, we can change how we perceive and thus approach a situation by taking control of our thoughts. Of course, it’s not easy and not always possible, but developing skills here are invaluable
To support her development, Jessie too works with a coach. Her coach supports her with guidance, sharing insight and opinions, and is a trusted person to bounce ideas off. This has been helpful when building her financial literacy.
There’s a drive to grow her business and empower people, and to make it commercially viable too, and doing so is a process.
Talking about money and answering the ‘what do you charge?’ question can be tough. Using a lower price point initially to get things cranking, now Jessie’s pricing reflects fair market rates. Jessie reminds us that when you’re consulting, freelancing or you deliver a service, your charge-out rate is the value you put on your work and the perception it creates in the industry. We all know that cheaper isn’t always better!
There’s a drive to grow her business and empower people, and to make it commercially viable too, and doing so is a process.
Talking about money and answering the ‘what do you charge?’ question can be tough. Using a lower price point initially to get things cranking, now Jessie’s pricing reflects fair market rates. Jessie reminds us that when you’re consulting, freelancing or you deliver a service, your charge-out rate is the value you put on your work and the perception it creates in the industry. We all know that cheaper isn’t always better!
Three things Jessie would say to young women entering, or in, the workforce today:
- “Always work on your self-growth”
- “Your fulfilment is only dictated by what is going on inside you.”
- “Try and find a passion and you will never be tired or stressed again.” - this is due to our brains being stimulated when we are doing what we are passionate about.
Interviewee: Jessie Kendall, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Role: Founder of Empower Me Now, with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and Masters of Science in Industrial and Organisational (Applied) Psychology. Jessie is also an internationally qualified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner.
You can follow her on Facebook here.
Summer 2017/2018
Watch this space! There's a tonne of content being moulded for you which will make it's way here in the coming months so be sure to flick us a LIKE on Facebook to keep up with the latest and greatest.
If you are a cool chick with a great story, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to send us deets of other amazing ladies you know too, and we will reach out.
Tēnā rawa atu koe.
If you are a cool chick with a great story, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to send us deets of other amazing ladies you know too, and we will reach out.
Tēnā rawa atu koe.